Is Duke Roufus Single-Handedly Advancing MMA Striking?

It certainly didn’t sound like anyone thought this was a revolution in striking concepts

I’d like to think that in 5 years time a fighter will pull off a move like Pettis and whilst the audience will be impressed, they won’t be surprised.

I think moves like what Pettis did was more a tribute to Pettis’ atheticism and skill. I think you’re always going to find guys like that who are willing to do high risk, big reward moves. But there is a reason why stuff like good head movement, good footwork, etc. are mainstays of striking; it’s because they work and even journeymen can learn them. Sure, some are better than others at it, but it works. Stuff like pushing off a cage, jumping off a cage, etc. isn’t something you’re going to be seeing a lot of fighters doing.

Duke Roufus’ camp is on the rise. In the last two years, his gym and its fighters have skyrocketed into the public eye of the MMA scene. I remember when his most talked about fighter was Eric Shafer.

People passing this off as a novelty haven’t been paying attention. Another striking tactic that Roufus imparts to his fighters— that is unique to them as a consistent tactic within their camp— is the straight to high kick combination. You’ve seen guys like Matt Mitrione both attempt and successfully employ this tactic, one which is (oddly) rarely seen in MMA.

I don’t think we’ve seen all he has to offer, either. Duke obviously have a lot of crazy ideas in that mind of his and I’m always geeked to see one of his fighters perform.

But you know what was even more impressive than the punch?

The Sexy Smile that it produced.

“Sexyama laughs at your pathetic attempts at striking innovation! Laughs I say!”

It’s not just Pettis and Belcher. I think the creativity will help the striking aspect of the sport grow but only at the lighter weight classes. I think it gets scaled down with LHW and HW fighters but it’s scary to think what could happen with a BW or FW who is equally as athletic as a guy like Anthony Pettis. The Belcher superman punch was impressive but I think that’s as crazy as it gets for heavier fighters.

It’s super flashy though and when it is successful you pull off the move of the year. Kind like how Rumina Sato was with his flying Armbars and Triangles and Nick Diaz was when he did the gogoplata on Gomi.

Pettis and his striking/capoeira background along w/ his natural athletic ability reduces risk and increases reward possibility exponentially.
the other aspect of this is weight class. flyweights do crazy shit like this in smaller shows a great deal more. i have no proof but i’d venture to guess that statistically speaking the ratio of crazy ass dynamic striking goes down as weight classes go up.

The thought of MMA striking creativity staying at the level that it is today is absurd. ABSOLUTELY ABSURD.

I may be one of the few that agree, think about the way MMA is evolving and the more the athletes are evolving. With the infllux of these great athletes, these tactics will become a much more common practice.

I think the kick is an important event for MMA, because human innovation tends to lead to more human innovation. 99.99% of MMA fans, media and most importantly fighters would never believe that kick would work without seeing it with their own eyes. Any fighter who isn’t currently rethinking whether there is some use for the cage they haven’t thought of isn’t doing their job. The complexity of MMA is such that the number of techniques, let alone combinations of techniques, that can be deployed in a fight is effectively infinite. It seems pretty foolish to not believe that there are a huge number of effective techniques out there that have yet to be discovered or proved effective. It’s a bit like the question of whether or not there are aliens living on other planets – you never know they exist until you see it, but given the size of the universe and how little we’ve seen of it, their existence is a pretty safe bet.

I am still surprised we haven’t seen more attempts at punches launched from the cage. It seems like creative fighters would find ways to implement that into a fight.

Also, fun fact I haven’t seen mentioned is Duke Roufus is the younger brother of Rick Roufus, the head kickboxing instructor at The Lab in Glendale, which is where Ben Henderson trains.

Excerpt:

Believe it or not, the sensational kick Anthony Pettis used to floor Benson Henderson was inspired by the cult martial-arts classic, “Ong Bak.”

Pettis’ coach, Duke Roufus, said he’s played around with “old-school” Muay Thai techniques for several years, and the crazy kick that Pettis landed is just one such attack.

“I just believe in being creative,” Roufus today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Anthony is a lifelong martial artist, and I’m a lifelong martial artist, and we’re just trying to keep evolving and blend it all together.”

Link here

Old school Caporeira is based heavily on using whatever advantage you had in a confined area, like vaulting off of walls and tricky, flashy kicks to confuse the opponent.

Anyone who is bringing something new into the cage is advancing the sport. Is the idea completely original? Of course not. For a couple hundred years there’s actually been martial art systems that teach the use of vaulting, cartwheels and handstands, among other crazy things. We’ve actually seen a handful of fighters use the cage this way, just never for the purpose of executing a flying roundhouse.

Bones was the first person I’ve seen to fake a TD as a set up for a the spinning back elbow(also the first I’ve seen), that is truly advancing striking in MMA. What’s impressive is there is no ancient art that teaches fake TD/spinning back elbows.

I think a big angle missed in selling this fight was the battle between the trainers. Rick Roufus trains Ben Henderson in striking and Duke Roufus trains Pettis. I think they could have played that up well in the build up. Brothers training young lions to battle it out.

Does this mean Leland is now the only writer among the affiliates who knows what he’s talking about in JMMA?

SBN – Nelson – HKL = LelandRoling.com?

I meant to say it’d be awesome if Anderson Silva was about five years younger and tried to implement the cage into his assault

Lot of people don’t know it, but he was co promoter for the first two fight night in the flats events in Cleveland.

Personally I would like to see it become more common to a degree… I think people will start to know who and what to look out for as time goes on though. And some moves put you at more risk than others for counters. It’s exciting to see stuff like that, so I hope they keep it up in some form.

Anthony Pettis also utilizes some crisp capoeira mixed with strikes.

Also, most of the people fighting out of their camp have good striking, so he’s definitely doing something that works.

…insert gif of Mir pushing off the cage with his feet to trap Sylvia’s arm and snap it…

isn’t duke responsible for pat barry’s rise in striking prowess, along with the tweaks mitrione has made to his game?

memory fails me but i think both are with the rofusport camp/have ties and are affiliated with it

barry has a fantastic striking base, you can see his improvements fight by fight
while mitrione isn’t exactly technical excellence at this point in time
he’s come on leaps and bounds, and is starting to put his power down at the right time

i bloody love watching both guys fight, pettis also
its just nice to see a coach praised so much for the advancing of his students striking game
instead of coaches ripped to bits for safe fighting/ill advised game planning

its turning out to be a nice all round year for MMA

rex kwon do is.